The manufacturing of an aircraft may require joining a left wing and a right wing to a central wing box, and then joining the wing box to a fuselage center section to form a wing-body section. Alternatively, a wing box and fuselage center section may be joined, after which a left wing and a right wing may be joined to the wing box to form the wing-body section. As part of the aircraft manufacturing process, protective coatings may be applied to different areas of the wing-body section during or subsequent to such assembly processes. For example, paint, fuel vapor barrier coatings, corrosion-inhibiting compounds, and/or sealants may be applied to localized areas of the aircraft, such as the fuselage interior, the wing box, and along upper and lower surfaces of the wings at the juncture with the fuselage. In a factory environment, it is necessary to contain vapors, overspray, and/or liquids resulting from the process of applying protective coatings. As a result, the wing-body section must be enclosed during the coating application process.
Conventional enclosure systems for wing-body sections are fixed structures that are permanently mounted to the factory floor. The permanent nature of such enclosure systems necessitates the use of an overhead crane to move the wing-body section into position over the enclosure system, after which the crane lowers a lid onto the enclosure system to fully enclose the wing-body section. Once the coatings have been applied and cured, the overhead crane is again required to lift the lid off of the enclosure and move the lid onto a storage tool, and move the wing-body section to the next production line position on the factory floor. The use of an overhead crane for each move of the wing-body section and lid impacts overall production rate.
As can be seen, there exists a need in the art for a system and method for enclosing a wing-body section that allows for the manufacturing of aircraft in an efficient manner.